Giuseppe Tartini, author of the well known Il trillo del diavolo, was born in this city, then called Pirano, part of the Republic of Venice. The Piran square bears his name, and the birthplace of the composer can be found on a side of the square, the difference being that, at the time of his birth, the place looked completely different. The Tartini Square was not always a square, but, at first, an unloading dock for the boats and vessels fishing in the Adriatic, found outside the citadel walls. In time, palaces and beautiful administrative buildings begin to rise near the piers. As the importance of the place grows, the authorities decide the silting of the golf in 1894 and the building of a true square. Two years later, Tartini’s statue is unveiled here, thought of as a focal point, and the square, dominated from the hill by the Saint George church and with a campanile identical to the one in Venice, is a harmonious and lively space, with a proper and accomplished balance of form and proportion.

Prešernov trg was a simple crossroads at the entrance of the medieval city, where, in 1646, a Franciscan monastery is built and which stands to this day. In the 19th century, the crossroads is paved and starts looking like an urban square. The end of the same century brings about a radical transformation, for, due to the earthquake of 1895, the old houses are replaced by Neoclassical and, later, by Sezession style buildings. In 1980, the Slovenian architect Edvard Ravnikar creates the current circle design of the pavement, which lends a special note to the square: a sun, on a granite background, with rays made of Macedonian Prilep marble. A triple bridge, Tromostovje, across the Ljubljanica, ties the square through Stritarjeva ulica to the old square of the city, found at the foot of the hill where the castle is, right next to the cathedral. The city square, Mestni trg, is dominated by a fountain built in 1751. The two squares, although they have not been planned together, and although they are each partly the result of later redevelopment, represent an unexpectedly coherent and suggestive urban whole.